Interim
Joint Committee on State Government

Minutes
of the<MeetNo1>2nd Meeting

Of the 2003 Interim

<MeetMDY1>August 26, 2003

The<MeetNo2>2nd meeting of the Elections, Constitutional
Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs Task Force of the Interim Joint
Committee on State Government was held on<Day>Tuesday,<MeetMDY2>August
26, 2003, at<MeetTime>1:00 PM, in<Room>Room 129 of the Capitol Annex. Senator
Alice Kerr, Co-Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the
roll.

Senator Kerr asked for approval of the June 24, 2003
minutes, and they were approved. Senator Kerr said at the June meeting,
testimony was heard from the State Board of Elections about delays in receiving
death information from the Office of Vital Statistics, which is in the Cabinet
for Health Services. At the time the State Board of Elections said that the
information was running consistently late. This information is used to update
the voter registration lists and to keep them accurate so there is not a
possibility of voter fraud.

The Task Force voted at its June meeting to send a letter to
the Cabinet for Health Services, urging that the information be expedited.
Since the letter was sent, staff received information from the State Board of
Elections on the transmission of death information.

Laura Hendrix, Committee Staff Administrator, said
information was received from the State Board of Elections as to death reports
that were sent from Vital Statistics for deaths from December 1997 to June
2003. Staff took the information from the State Board and broke it down into
several charts. The number of deceased voters that were removed from the voting
rolls according to the State Board of Elections was a total of 109,510 persons
for the years of death from December, 1997 to June, 2003 and the average per
month was 1,634. However, in this period of time, there were about 50,000
voters who remarried on the voting rolls after their month of death, during an
election.

Mary Sue Helm gave an overview of the voter registration
lists update process, which has changed significantly with the passage of the
Federal Motor Voter Act and there are many more requirements at this level now.

Fielding Hodgkin, State Board of Elections, gave a brief
overview of the statewide voter registration database in Kentucky. Kentucky has
an online voter registration system where by all county clerks are connected to
the state mainframe. The system is updated on a daily basis. With regard to how
deceased voters are removed, once the data is received from Vital Statistics
the job is scheduled to run within 24 to 48 hours of receipt of the
information. The database matches social security number, date of birth and the
last name for each of their records. When that criteria is met, the voter is
removed from the active voting rolls, and a report is written reflecting why
the person was deleted. This record is sent back to each county for them to be
able to pull their voter registration card out of their active files, and a no-match
listing is created. If the criteria for an automatic deletion is not met, they
still produce a no-match listing, and the State Board personnel manually try to
determine whether that person needs to be removed from the rolls.

Ms. Helm then gave an overview of how other voters are
removed. Deceased registrants and convicted felons are removed based on
information received from Vital Statistics, convicted felons are removed on
information received from the Administrative Office of the Courts or the U.S.
Attorneys' offices for any federal conviction, and mental incompetents are
removed upon information from circuit court clerks.

Sara Ball Johnson, State Board of Elections, provided an
overview of how other voters are removed from the Voter Registration Database.
She said they have a set criterion for deletion and if they don't feel
comfortable that the information reflects that it is the same person, then they
don't delete them. There is a form called a "Deceased Voters Notice"
that is submitted from the counties, which gives the social security number,
voter's name and birthdate of individuals the clerks know are deceased in their
county, and the voters are purged based upon that submission. This information
is received in addition to Vital Statistics' deceased voters' information. Of
all the purges, the most laborious and expensive is the inactive voter list,
which was specifically created in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993
or the "Motor Voter Act" as it is commonly called. Ms. Johnson explained
it is a new way of purging and it was created it did not exist before in any
state in the nation. She explained that if an individual voter has been mailed
an official piece of mail stating they are registered to vote, such as their
precinct, jury notices or surrender drivers license notices, and it is returned
and the name and address matches exactly what is on their file, then the State
Board can use that as an indication under NVRA that they no longer live at that
address because that one piece of mail was returned back. Once that happens, a
second mailing is sent to the same address and that is called a confirmation
mailing. If the voter doesn't vote or update their address within 2 federal
general elections, they will be placed on the inactive voter list. If they do
show up to vote on Election Day, they are allowed to vote by updating their
address listing.

Senator Karem asked if there is something in the register
when voters go to the polls that flag them for a newer address. Ms. Johnson
said it will be different with the inactive voters for this general election.
At the request of the clerks, the inactive voters' list was put on the precinct
roster to see if it reduces the number of phone calls. This list will have the
person's name and underneath that it will have a designation, as inactive voter
so there won't be an address. This should alert the precinct officer that the
person's address needs to be verified and updated.

Senator Robinson asked how would a situation be handled if
the precinct is notified in advance of inactive voters and the precinct
officers are the ones that are participating in the voter fraud. Ms. Johnson
was not sure how that could be prevented, other than you would find out later
that an ineligible person has voted. If a person is allowed to vote and sign
the roster then they should have the necessary documents to go along with it.

Senator Robinson wanted to know how the second notice was
sent to voters. Ms. Johnson said the law requires a forwardable two part
postcard with the bottom piece being a prepaid notice that the voter can fill
out with the correct information to mail back to the State Board.

Representative Harmon asked if there is a criteria of
matching up 3 items to remove the deceased voters, and if they only meet 2 of
those requirements are they removed. Ms. Johnson said they are not
automatically removed, and the staff manually reviews the list.

Senator Tori asked if the detailed information would be
given to the precinct workers if the inactive names were going to be on the
register. Ms. Johnson said there will be a Precinct Officer Quick Reference
Guide, which contains all the questions and procedures on Election Day and is
devised in a quick lookup format if they have questions.

Senator Kerr commended Representative Fischer for his
suggestion at the last meeting for revising the oath of voter to contain a
statement which says, "I affirm that I have not voted and will not vote in
another precinct in this state during the election." The new oaths of
voters for the 2003 general election will contain that language.

Dr. Rice Leach, Cabinet for Health Services said that the
Vital Statistics Branch did not get the death information to the State Board of
Elections in a timely fashion. The decrease of employees, due to retirements in
the Vital Statistics Branch, had caused these delays. He said they complete
2,000 requests a day for information. The current status is that all death data
through June 30th has been forwarded to the State Board. The July
2003 data will be forwarded no later than August 20th. All data
should be current within 2 weeks. Once the information is caught up it will be
forwarded monthly unless there is a problem. Dr. Leach apologized to the
committee for not knowing there was a problem in the Vital Statistics Branch.
He said other glitches and the impact of three different system implementations
took a great deal of staff time so the accounting and reporting function for
the elections people stopped. He said steps are being taken to implement several
automation and contract activities to increase their efficiency at no
additional cost.

Senator Tori asked how many employees were needed to do a
good job. Dr. Leach said they need to modernize and did not know for sure the
demand for personnel until the new systems were implemented but would report
back to the committee at a later time once everything is up and running.

Representative Arnold said there would not be a Task Force
meeting in September.